Hawaii CPA License Reinstatement: What a Lapsed License Costs

If your Hawaii CPA license has already lapsed

What it actually takes to get a lapsed Hawaii CPA license back — the fee, the catch-up CPE, and exactly what triggers "lapsed" in the first place. Sourced the same way every fact on this site is: a board page, plus the codified rule itself where we could confirm it against primary law, clearly labelled where we could only confirm it against the board's own page, never a guess.

Reinstatement Fee

$204

Board's own fee page: $204 to restore a lapsed individual license, vs. $152 for on-time renewal. Firm permit-to-practice restoration is separate and higher ($360 entity / $128 sole proprietor).

Catch-Up CPE Required

HAR §16-71-35 requires making up any CPE deficiency from the standard 80-hour biennial requirement before the Board approves the permit to practice -- completion of an existing shortfall, not an additional penalty on top of the normal requirement.

Source of record HAR §16-53-38(7), (8), (11), (12) (restoration-fee formula: biennial renewal fee + equal penalty fee + recordkeeping fee, plus the biennial Compliance Resolution Fund fee independently required at restoration under HRS §26-9(o) for non-sole-proprietorship licenses/firms); HRS §466-8(c) (statutory restoration-fee formula HAR §16-53-38(11) implements); §16-71-2 (biennial renewal); §16-71-35 (CPE deficiency and carryover hours) read the rule →

Sourcing note: Confirmed directly from the codified fee rule, not just the Board's own page: HAR §16-53-38 sets the restoration formula as the biennial renewal fee plus an equal penalty fee (paragraphs (7) and (11)), and HRS §26-9(o) separately requires any unpaid fee -- including the $100 biennial Compliance Resolution Fund fee under HAR §16-53-38(12) -- to be paid to restore a license. For an individual license: $52 renewal + $52 penalty + $100 Compliance Resolution Fund fee = $204. For a non-sole-proprietorship firm permit: $130 + $130 + $100 = $360. Sole-proprietorship firm permits owe no Compliance Resolution Fund fee under (12), so their total stops at $64 + $64 = $128. These published figures are the baseline for restoring within the same biennium; HAR §16-53-38(8) and HRS §466-8(c) add a further $20 recordkeeping fee for each full biennium your license was on forfeited status. (Last checked 2026-09-12.)

What triggers lapsed status: Licenses and permits renew biennially by December 31 of odd-numbered years. Per the Board's own page, licenses not renewed by the expiration date are unlicensed and may not practice.

Last verified: 2026-09-12 · checked against the state's codified statute or administrative rule, not just a board webpage — if we can't verify a date against primary law, we say so instead of guessing (see how we verify every deadline). Always confirm with the official state board before relying on this date. License requirements and deadlines can change.

See Hawaii's CPA license renewal deadline →

How many CPE hours does Hawaii require? →

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